Artemisia halodendron litters have strong negative allelopathic effects on earlier successional plants during vegetation restoration in a semi-arid sandy dune region in China
- 1College of Land and Resources, China West Normal University, Nanchong, China (duzhong@cib.ac.cn)
- 2Naiman Desertification Research Station, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
- 3School of Environmental and Municipal Engineering, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, China
- 4Forest Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland
- 5Key Laboratory of Geographical Processes and Ecological Security in Changbai Mountains, Ministry of Education, School of Geographical Sciences, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China
Artemisia halodendron Turcz. ex Besser occurs following the appearance of a pioneer species, Agriophyllum squarrosum (L.) Moq., and the former “killed” and replaced the latter during the naturally vegetation succession in sandy dune regions in China. A previous study revealed that the foliage litter of A. halodendron had strong negative allelopathic effects on germination of the soil seed bank and on the seedling growth. It is unclear whether an allelopathic effect of A. halodendron litters positively or negatively affects the seed germination, leading to a progressively replacement of the plant species in sandy dune regions.
We, therefore, carried out a seed germination experiment to determine the allelopathic effects of three litter types of A. halodendron (roots, foliage, and stems) on seed germination of six plant species that progressively occur along a successional gradient in the semi-arid grasslands of northeastern China.
In line with our expectation, we found that the early-successional species rather than the late-successional species were negatively affected by the allelopathic effects of A. halodendron, and that the allelopathic effects on seed germination increase with increasing concentration of litter extracts, irrespective of litter types.
Our study evidenced the negative allelopathic effects of A. halodendron on the species replacement and on the community composition during dune stabilization. Further studies are needed to better understand the successional process and thus to promote the vegetation restoration, as A. halodendron itself disappeared also during the process.
How to cite: Du, Z., Luo, Y., Yan, Z., Zhao, X., Li, Y., Yang, Y., and Li, M.-H.: Artemisia halodendron litters have strong negative allelopathic effects on earlier successional plants during vegetation restoration in a semi-arid sandy dune region in China, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-6041, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-6041, 2020
